Chillywilly

It's bitter outside.  I've been to see if the Girls need re-arranging.

Poppy is still henpecking the Littlees.  The two tiny girls run away in panic but Fleur, the not-so-little Marans, just ducks, takes her peck, and carries on.   I think that Fleur may usurp Poppy and become number 2.

The sleeping arrangements continue to bewilder.  Rarely do we have all girls in one cube, and the nightly allocation covers every permutation possible.   Last week we had one girl on her own in one of the Cubes most nights, sometimes it was Sasha, sometimes Poppy, once it was Gloria;  which Cube the loner ended up in also changed. 

I had decided to leave well alone, assuming that it would all resolve itself in the end.    My resolution went out of the window a few nights ago, as I was concerned about any of them being in a coop alone when the weather was quite as cold as it was.

The first time, Sasha was on her own.  She's a tiny hen, and not exactly fluffy.   In the other Cube, Poppy was in the nestbox, and the rest were on the roosting bars. Under cover of darkness I picked up Sasha and deposited her in the Cube with the others.  I put her to the far right, so she was as far away as possible from Poppy and Gloria.   I then switched off my torch and stood in silence and motionless, to see what happened.   There was silence.  Then there was trilling,  Then there was much moving about.   I opened the egg port and shone the torch in to see what was going on.  All looked OK, so I went back indoors.

Yesterday, Poppy was in one of the Cubes on her own.  She's a much bigger, fluffier, hen. However, the predicted low temperature was somewhat extreme, so I transferred her to the nestbox of the other cube.  All seemed OK.

Tonight, Sasha was in one Cube, with Fay in the same Cube in the nestbox.  Fleur was in with the big girls.  I hesitated.  I decided to leave them as they were.

I know they are only chickens.  I can't help it.

I've been giving them pellet porridge in the afternoons.  This is just ordinary pellets with boiling water to make a mash. Some mixed corn is stirred in,  then it's served on dishes on the floor, sprinkled with some sunflower hearts.     DH had been beer making yesterday so we have a big bowl of  mashed barley,  and I stirred some of that in to the mix as well

I have to put out 4 well spaced bowls, because the Girls all suffer from GreenerGrass Syndrome.  If there were only 2 bowls, only the two Oldies would eat.  If there were only 3, still only the 2 oldees would eat - they would take it in turns to move the LIttlees off the 3rd bowl.  With 4 bowls, it's too many for them to control at once.